How to Reintroduce Meat After Being Vegan or Vegetarian
If vegetarianism or veganism doesn’t work for you, then you’ll want to read this post with eight tips for reintroducing meat after being on a vegan or vegetarian diet. Get tips for which animal proteins to add first, how to support your digestion, and tips on adapting your mindset to eating meat again.
Eating Meat Again
Eating meat again after being vegan or vegetarian is a controversial topic. People who have made the commitment to being vegan or vegetarian because of ethical reasons don’t like to hear about people who aren’t thriving on such a strict diet.
After following a 100% strict vegan diet for 3 1/2 years, I realized in 2014 that I needed to expand my dietary choices and figure out which foods really would nourish my individual needs. I wrote this post on why I am no longer vegan.
The truth is, being vegetarian or vegan isn’t right for everyone, and can lead to nutritional deficiencies and even disordered eating patterns.
I wrote a comprehensive article with the top vegan diet dangers that you might be interested in reading. One of the vegan health risks can lead to irreversible health damage.
Read on to the end of this article for more information on my experience going from vegan to eating meat again.
Most People Eat Meat Again
One study showed that 84% of vegetarians return to eating meat again.
There are obviously vegan diet risks and benefits. Once you realize that you aren’t thriving on a vegetarian or vegan diet, you’re then faced with the choice of discarding everything you’ve come to believe, making that mental shift, and adding meat back into your diet.
I get how difficult of a decision this is to move away from a vegan diet. The vast majority of my audience and friends were incredibly supportive when I made my announcement about not being vegan anymore, but there were a few people who were unkind and cruel showed a disturbing lack of compassion and humanity.
So, in order to offer support to those who are going through this tough transition, I’ve come up with eight tips for how to reintroduce meat back into your diet after being vegan or vegetarian.
And, just to be clear, I’m not trying to convince anyone to eat meat or to stop being vegan or vegetarian.
This post is for the many, many people who have reached out to me asking for help because they’ve realized they need to try adding meat back into their diets. Along with these tips, I offer kindness, compassion, and empathy for a very tough decision.
8 Tips to Reintroduce Meat
1. Re-introduce animal foods slowly, and one at a time
A person transitioning from a vegetarian or vegan diet back to an omnivorous diet might want to introduce fish first, then poultry, and then red meat.
If you have been vegan and are adding animal products back in, eggs might even be a better first choice before fish. It’s a very individual decision and there’s no one right way to start. Even listening to your cravings might be the best rule of thumb.
I understand that some people may choose to stay away from red meat for good, but for others, red meat provides the nutrients that they’ve been lacking on a vegetarian or vegan diet. By all means, don’t fall for the pack of lies that fake meat is comparable to real meat. Fake meat is, in fact, a highly processed, unhealthy food.
Read my article on the potential dangers of plant-based meat.
Red meat from grass-fed, organic sources is an incredible source of healthy vitamins like B12, minerals such as zinc and iron, beneficial antioxidants like glutathione, and essential fatty acids such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).
In fact, adding meat back into your diet may help reverse one of the biggest dangers of vegan diet which is B12 deficiency.
And, of course, meat is a very bioavailable source of protein, with all sources of animal protein providing complete sources of protein.
Start your reintroduction of meat slowly, and with one protein at a time. This means trying 1-2 ounces of cooked animal proteins a day. Or, if you are really having a hard time, try eating 1-2 bites of lean protein per meal.
This approach can help reacclimatize your body to digesting protein again and it can also help alert you to any allergies or intolerances to foods as eggs and shellfish are among the top food allergens.
Over a period of days or weeks, you can start to eat more variety of animal proteins and in greater quantity with each meal. Be sure to listen to your body and maybe even keep a symptom journal to note your changes in energy or other symptoms that resolve or occur after you eat.
2. Support your digestion by taking enzymes
If you’ve ever experienced or heard about the “heavy” feeling that can come with eating meat after being vegan or vegetarian, then you might benefit from taking some digestive enzymes or betaine HCL with your meal.
Eating meat after being vegetarian can take some time for your body to adjust.
The most likely reason for that heavy feeling you get after eating red meat is compromised digestion. Or, maybe you ate too much of it at one time.
Those meat-digesting enzymes were taking a break when you were vegetarian or vegan, and your body might need some help.
Low stomach acid is not uncommon. Your functional medicine practitioner can run tests to determine if you would benefit from taking enzymes (find a functional medicine doctor near you).
If you suspect that red meat is affecting your gallbladder, you may need to supplement with bile salts. It helps if you use a slow cooker to prepare your meat.
You might like this recipe for Slow Cooker Tri Tip with Root Vegetables, for example. Slow cooking your meat will help break down the proteins more making it easier to digest (see all my tips for how to eat clean without starving yourself).
Or, for another red meat option, you could opt for bison instead, which has less fat and may be easier for your digestive system to process. See my article on the health benefits of bison or my recipe for a Ground Bison Bowl.
If you have continue to have stomach heaviness or other digestive issues after eating meat again, you may need to take it slower. Reduce your portion size or try a different protein.
You may also need to consider adding more probiotic sources to your diet to help your system. See my list of the best foods with natural probiotics and also check out my article with the best gut healing foods.
3. Choose higher-fat cuts of meat for more flavor
Let’s be honest, the most flavorful cuts of red meat contain more fat.
If you find yourself grimacing at the taste of red meat, it may mean that you’re choosing too lean of a cut. An example is switching from consuming 99% lean ground beef to one that has an 80/20 ratio. The fat in meat adds flavor and helps make the meat tender and appealing to consume.
There’s no need to fear the fat if you’re consuming organic, grass-fed and grass-finished beef. In conventionally raised beef products, toxins generally get stored in fat tissue.
But in organic, grass-fed and grass-finished beef products, consuming some of the fat is actually quite beneficial. You’ll get an added dose of conjugated linoleic acid, plus the fat will help you absorb all those essential vitamins and minerals that are so plentiful in red meat.
See my guide on how to find grass-fed meat near you.
4. Consider the source of your meats
Conventional feedlot beef is not a good choice for a myriad of reasons. Both vegan and paleo communities agree that factory farming is unethical, unnatural, and horrible for animals and the planet. There are quite a few companies that source their meat from organic, grass-fed and grass-finished farms.
Outside of buying from local farms, you can now order online and have frozen grass-fed meats shipped directly to your door.
You may need to purchase an extra freezer for your garage to help store all the extra meat, but you’ll certainly save money and have control over the quality of your animal proteins by buying from trusted sources.
5. Lose the fear of eating meat
Sarah Ballantyne from The Paleo Mom wrote an informative blog post debunking the “unhealthy” myth that surrounds red meat consumption. She cites studies that have shown that red meat may cause cancer.
And while it’s possible that red meat does contribute to the formation of cancer, eating red meat with plenty of vegetables mitigates your cancer risk.
There’s really no need to worry about red meat being unhealthy if you’re eating clean most of the time and consuming plenty of vegetables.
The idea that eating meat always causes disease is one of the ways proponents of a vegan diet use fear to grow the movement. Choosing cleaner, less processed sources of meat and not charring it helps mitigate your cancer risk as well.
Additionally, in 2019, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine “found low- to very low-certainty evidence that diets lower in unprocessed red meat may have little or no effect on the risk for major cardiometabolic outcomes and cancer mortality and incidence.”
So, this is further evidence that meat is not bad for humans.
6. Get help with disordered eating patterns
Even with the understanding that red meat is part of a healthy, balanced diet, people with a history of eating disorders or disease may struggle with the idea of eating red meat again.
As stated above, red meat is not an unhealthy addition to one’s diet when done right.
However, obsessing about restricting certain foods, such as red meat, could be unhealthy and may trigger some people to go back to their disordered ways of eating.
This interesting study encourages the use of “real food” meal plans over restricted diet meal plans for people recovering from eating disorders.
Getting help with this transition to eating meat again could include anything from working with a specialist to simply learning from informed people who have a balanced perspective. This article also provides a great balanced perspective on how the vegan talking points aren’t actually correct.
Here are some other tips for what to do if you have orthorexia.
7. Choose a variety of red meats and animal proteins
The truth is, humans evolved eating a much more varied diet than most of us eat now. The variety is what provides us with the macro- and micro-nutrients our bodies need.
I am guilty of eating the same foods over and over again, but I’m trying to get into the habit of ordering different types and cuts of red meat and other animal proteins when I order online.
It’s also a good idea to try different cooking styles when you’re getting back into the habit of eating meat again. In fact, I remember feeling very overwhelmed by how to cook meat without drying it out when I was adding it back into my diet.
Be sure to check out my articles on the safest cookware options for your kitchen, plus the safest cooking oils and a picky eater list.
You can also try using animal-based protein powders to help add more protein to your diet. I have a list of the best best non-whey protein powder that might be helpful.
And, as a last resort, you can even try something like cricket protein to help get more high quality protein into your diet.
8. Get social support and join new communities
Leaving veganism or vegetarianism is a huge life change; many people say that veganism is less of a diet and more of a lifestyle. For me, the experience of moving away from a vegan diet and vegan lifestyle meant re-building my identify and finding new communities to join.
The paleo and primal communities are filled with ex-vegans, including Mark Sisson and Chris Kresser who have each created empires around conscious food choices.
A simple search on Facebook for “recovering vegans” will result in groups of people who have gone through this experience and have experienced vegan health risks.
Life transitions as big as this are always made easier with the support of others.
My Experience Reintroducing Meat
I was 100% plant-based from around 2011 to 2014. But, I stopped being vegan and realized I had to make a change to support my failing health.
I experienced several of the problems with a vegan diet including fatigue, nutritional deficiencies, and an increase in symptoms from my autoimmune disease.
Once I made the decision to stop being vegan, I immediately started craving eggs and steak. I started with eggs and moved quickly to red meat. I did not have any negative physical effects from eating animal products again, but I did start taking a betaine HCL supplement with meals to help with digesting protein.
I did struggle with the ethics of eating animals but I made the decision to try as hard as I could to eat only sustainably-raised livestock and animals. I also worked with a professional eating disorders therapist who helped me work through the difficult decision to eat animal foods.
I did a lot of reading and questioning around the ethics of eating meat and came to the conclusion that our bodies evolved to function with the nutrients from animal products, so it was counterproductive to try and argue against what my body needed to work correctly.
It as a very tough decision but I am happy that I ultimately listened to my body and did what was best for my health.
FAQs About Eating Meat Again
No, vegans do not eat meat or any product that comes from an animal. Many vegans also avoid wearing clothes or using any other products that come from an animal, such as leather.
Vegetarians or vegans won’t get sick when they eat meat, but they might feel sluggish or have a stomachache if they eat too much too quickly.
Start slowly and with small amounts. Some people might find it easier to eat fish or ground meat to start.
Vegetarians or vegans might not be making as much digestive enzymes, so it’s not a bad idea to take digestive enzymes when you reintroduce meat.
Vegetarians technically do not eat fish, but I would encourage you to be less concerned about rules, and more concerned about supplying your body with the nutrients it needs. So, if you want to eat fish, then eat fish!
This is a tough issue and may require some professional counseling from a dietitian or eating disorders specialist. There is really no reason to feel guilt for nourishing your body the way it evolved to be fed. However, societal pressures can lead to feelings of guilt. Outside of consulting with a professional, you might try offering thanks to the animals for nourishing you before you eat a meal. It can also be helpful to connect with other people who did not thrive on a vegan or vegetarian diet and who have gone through what you are going through.
If you are not feeling well on a strict vegan diet, then you may want to consider consulting a profession who can do lab work or evaluate whether or not you need to change your diet. A vegan diet is considered a very restrictive diet and can lead to health issues.
It may be helpful to consult a dietitian or eating disorders specialist who can help you change your attitudes about eating meat.
You may also want to try meat dishes that are made in a slow-cooker with lots of vegetables to help mask the flavor of meat as you are getting used to eating it again.
Healthy Recipes to Consider When Re-Introducing Meat
More Clean Eating Kitchen Favorites
- Clean Food
- Boil Potatoes in Instant Pot
- Chicken Sweet Potato Recipe
- Homemade Almond Milk
- Diet for Leaky Gut
- Soft Food Diet
- Low Histamine Food List
Conclusions
I hope you find this post helpful! Have you had experience reintroducing red meat back into your diet after deciding to transition away from being a vegetarian or vegan? Let me know other suggestions in the comments below.
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About the Author: Carrie Forrest has a master’s degree in public health with a specialty in nutrition. She is a top wellness and food blogger with over 5 million annual visitors to her site. Carrie has an incredible story of recovery from chronic illness and is passionate about helping other women transform their health. Send Carrie a message through her contact form.
Note: this post is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider for recommendations related to your individual situation.
Would I take digestive enzymes WITH the Betain capsules? Or do the betain capsules do the same as digestive enzymes?!
I take both too. I think the digestive enzymes work on a variety of foods, and the betaine are targeted to protein. That’s my understanding, anyway.
thank you for this article, it gave me peace in making this choice.
Thank you for this useful guide!
I have been a vegetarian (lacto-ovo) since birth, and I am now 26 years old. Having spent my entire life avoiding meat, the thought of consuming it feels impossible. However, in the past couple of years, I have begun to encounter a host of frustrating health issues. These include unexplainable fatigue, joint pain, headaches, brain fog, and other such symptoms. I’ve read many articles and watched multiple documentaries outlining the potential health benefits of switching to a diet that includes meat—many of which pertained to my symptoms specifically. Sadly, this creates a lot of confusion for me, since I can find—in a click or two—multiple articles and documentaries that convincingly support the opposite claim.
So, after what looks like a novel, I guess my questions are as follows:
1. Can you give any advice on determining the personal viability of a meat inclusive diet before diving in headfirst?
2. How does one go about breaking down the mental barriers constructed by a lifetime of this “meat is not a food” thought processes, in order to try it in the first place?
Hello, thanks for reaching out. I would strongly advise you to work with a functional medicine practitioner who can use labs and your individual needs to determine if a more paleo-type diet would be appropriate for you. You might also want to do some research on autoimmune disease and diet. My doctor recommends a paleo diet with no grains to help manage my autoimmune symptoms. He monitors my labs and can see changes in my diet. That would be the best bet. Also, you might need the assistance of an eating disorders specialist to help you break the mental barriers of eating a diet with animal products. Sending you my very best, please keep me updated!
I’m the same! 26 years old and 26 years of lacto-ovo vegetarian experiences!
Though I don’t have these particularly health issues, I am simply growing tired of being the alien at every grill party (being the only vegetarian I sometimes feel like that)… Living with my boyfriend who eats meat does intrigue me to try it – plus I have some mental health problems and some minor health issues similar to yours. Which makes me curious about how my body would react to a normal diet…
I really just aged out of the foster system and am living on my own so being a vegetarian for me is no longer sustainable. This article is really helping me transition back into eating meat. It’s also helping to ease alot of transition guilt as well. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for the article! I decided to go meatless just to see if I felt as great as everyone said they did and if my skin looked better. I made it almost 2 weeks and although I didn’t mind it…I was feeling more bloated and uncomfortable that anything…moreso the second week. Like pants didn’t fit that fit two weeks prior and I workout 5+ times a week…cutting meat was the only change in my routine. I added it back (not as slowly as you suggested) starting 11/22 and I’ve felt bloated and just blah since. My upper abdomen is swollen, I feel full faster, the scale shows I’ve gained anywhere from 3-8lbs since last weighing 11/4 for my new workout program, and I just look “big” compared to the day I cut meat out (11/11). Of course Dr Google tells me I have every cancer imaginable and my liver isn’t functioning properly and I probably have congestive heart failure ?. I haven’t made an appt with dr bc I know I screwed with my diet and figure it’s a big part of it. Your article brought some comfort…but I still wonder, is what I’m feeling “normal” and how long does it take to go back to feeling normal?
Hi Jessica, ugh how frustrating! Have you tried taking digestive enzymes with protein to see if that helps? Do you take probiotics? I’m not qualified to diagnose or treat, so you might want to find a functional medicine dietitian or doc who can help figure out what’s going on.
Thank you for taking the time to write this!! I was vegan for 2 and a half years and was thriving until about the second year when something about my body felt off. I started craving meat and eggs and nothing I ate was completely satisfying. I eventually slowly reintroduced fish and eggs into my diet and the cravings stopped. I think my body was just craving certain nutrients I wasn’t getting on the vegan diet. I’ve been thinking about trying chicken again and Thai just gave me that extra “push” I needed.
Hi Elizabeth, I’m glad you’re listening to your body and figuring out what works best for you.
I was going to sort through the Google hits I got from searching “reintroduce meat,” I but I don’t see any need. This site was exactly what I was looking for. Kind words and good information. Being vegetarian for two years has left me with low energy and a host of other difficulties, but hearing from so many readers who’ve been down this same road has given me such a jolt of courage. I’m ready now for the next step, having already tried eating sardines, salmon and tuna with no big problems, to go on to chicken. I want to thank you for this site, that seemed to fall from heaven this morning, and each and every person who posted comments for people like me who needed this so much. I feel like I’ve been in group therapy. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart..
Sending you lots of love on your journey, Linda! I’ve been through the transition back to eating meat, and I know it can be tough. I am feeling so much better now, and I hope you do too.
I became a vegan on the advice of a health practitioner back in 1989. I have arthritis. My health dramatically improved. Many of my health problems cleared up including constipation. What I know now is that the constipation had nothing to do with eating meat and everything to do with eating gluten. After a few years of eating vegan, I found that if I ate even small amounts of meat, I would develop pneumonia. It’s because the meat would get stuck in my digestive tract and putrefy. After eating a vegan or vegetarian diet, the little villi in the intestines flatten out on this high fiber diet. The villi help move food along and well, I couldn’t move non fiber food along any more. In 2001 I started experimenting with eating tiny amounts of chicken baby food. I was able eventually to go back to eating chicken. But soon I developed a strange symptom. Every night the right side of my body would become numb. Every night! So I stopped eating meat (chicken) and the numbness disappeared. I have now been a vegetarian most of my life. I have managed to avoid heart disease on this diet because the vegetarian diet is anti inflammatory. So this has been a great result. But the downfall is weight, and bloating. I have developed a whole host of digestive problems and can no longer eat grains ad dairy. I would actually like to go back to eating a more rounded diet and reintroducing meat. I’ve used digestive enzymes, but they don’t help with digesting meat. It still gets stuck in my digestive tract….
Hi Rita, have you tried a beef-based protein powder? That might be a good way to start.
I became vegetarian around age 16 (now 34), I tried being vegan but that didn’t last long but ate mostly vegan for many years. Now I’m transitioning- just in the last 6 months, I’m cooking eggs again and I’ve tried some fish and chicken. I’m starting small- Trying a bite off of a friend’s plate, a small cup of chicken soup, a mostly vegetable stir fry or salad with a little salmon etc. It’s hardest mentally- at first I would gag as I ate fish/meat because for so long I’d spit it out if I accidentally took a bite of it. It’s getting easier for me as I go. I continue to take baby steps and try to eat some animal proteins (mostly eggs and a little fish/chicken) most days. I’m quite thin and I really feel like my body needs more protein and fats, and I might want to try to get pregnant and I feel I will need more nutrition to support a healthy pregnancy. Thank you for the helpful tips and support.
Thanks for sharing that, Erin! I know it must be so hard, but I truly hope you start to feel better and more at peace with your decision. I’m glad it’s getting easier. Sending lots of love and understanding for what you’re going through. XO, Carrie
THANK YOU FOR SUCH A WELL WRITTEN EXPLANATION OF WHY WE ALL NEED TO BE MINDFUL OF WHAT TYPE OF FOOD OUR OWN BODY NEEDS TO BE FUELED BY!
I lived the vegetarian dietary lifestyle for 25 years and for five of those years I followed the vegan dietary lifestyle. I was working within the health /nutrition industry at the time, was a runner, and most definitely NOT a junk food veggie!
Over time I watched my weight creep up and up. I fell prey to viruses, and fibromyalgia snuck up on me after I sustained double whiplash ( front to back and side to side movement of neck and head) in my early 20’s.
My thyroid became sluggish- I basically watched my health go down the tubes until one day… after also getting through the circus known as menopause, and the ensuing rising stress levels place upon my body, I decided to return to how I had eaten to fuel my body when I was thin and felt great-
So, I reintroduced myself to meats and fish- fought my crisis of conscience and decided that while it is noble to want to spare another living creature pain and death, I deserved to give myself that same respect and compassion. My health slowly at first began to return- and now I am so much better I cannot even believe how unwell I had become – all by doing what I thought was best for the planet and myself!
I find there are many ways to reduce suffering on the planet- and I as you mention, have become more than mindful of where my foods are sourced.
I still avoid animal product clothing ( although I do have several pieces of leather clothing that I still wear- my western boots for one, my deceased dad’s motorcycle jacket- seems senseless as their deaths to simply toss them out. I wear them with a reverence for the animal that gave its life to clothe me… as I give a prayer to the animal that gave its life to sustain me at mealtime) but have not added any more to the wardrobe.
I advocate for wildlife as possible, and walk more than not to local places- leaving the vehicle at home.
Thanks again for showing that there are more people out there who did not and will not thrive on the vegan dietary lifestyle!
And one last thing- perhaps we would do ourselves a solid if we were not so interested in labeling ourselves by what or how we eat…. flexitarian, omnivore, vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, raw foodie…. I prefer to be called by my name; not by what I do or do not eat!
This is really beautiful, Cary, and I so appreciate reading your thoughts. It is such a difficult and confusing situation when a vegan diet doesn’t work out. I so wish it could have sustained and supported my health. I am sorry to say that my health suffered too. Anyway, I really appreciate your insights and wisdom.
This is very beautifully l and thoughtfully written, thank you for your encouragement!
(I have been struggling to find someone with a long time experience as vegetarian to follow as a role model, as I (26 years old) have been raised in a vegetarian family – now starting to have a need to try meat to figure out what is best for me)
Thank you so much for sharing your story Cary! It really inspires me. I have been vegetarian for over a year now and my health has been declining. I also have IBS and have been told from so many sources to follow the low FODMAP diet. Being a vegetarian and having restrictions on what vegetables you can eat really makes life hard. I got tested for Anemia and Hypothyroid because I am always cold, tired, dizziness and shortness of breath and those came back negative. I started to reintroduce fish in my diet and that has helped some. I want to start eating chicken again to give myself more healthy options especially with the GAPS diet for IBS where basically you eat bone broth for a week to repair your gut lining. Reading your story has really made me feel better about my decision to return to eating meat.